To Rise or to Fall?

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the savage attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. It was a dreadful day when more Americans died than any other single day, except for the raid on Pearl Harbor. It was a terrible sight to see the buildings collapse. It was horrible to hear the stories of the first responders who died trying to save as many people as possible. We should never forget this day that some call Patriot's Day. We should ask the Lord to teach us lessons through it.

Egypt was destroyed by the Assyrians. It has never risen to the prominence it had before that. The Lord made it very clear why He did this to them. "Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because Egypt became proud and arrogant, and because it set itself so high above the others, with its top reaching to the clouds, I will hand it over to a mighty nation that will destroy it as its wickedness deserves. I have already discarded it." What a stark warning to us today, too. Will we rise or will we fall?

Please, don't misunderstand me here. I am a patriot. I believe that America is the greatest country in the world, not just because of our wealth, but because of the values upon which our country was established. I am proud to be an American. I do not want our country to fall in any way. However, I am concerned by what I see around us today. Sometimes I wonder why God removed His hand of protection to allow 9-11-2001 to happen to us. I don't want to see something even worse happen to our country.

Therefore, I believe we need to be very wary of the pride and arrogance that is being promoted today. We might be the best, but we don't need to brag about it. We need to be humble and thank God for helping us achieve all that we have in America. We don't need to exalt our country and be condescending to other countries. We need to let the Lord exalt us if He is pleased with us. We need to repent of the wickedness that is filling our country, so God will not decide we need to be destroyed for that reason. We need to turn to God on this Patriot's Day and cry out to Him to forgive our sins and to draw us back to Him.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 33-35.